Virgin Blue wins September OTP

Virgin Blue recorded the highest rate of on-time departures of the major airlines during September, according to the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.

Virgin Blue recorded an on-time departure range of 83.3 per cent, followed by Qantas at 83.1 per cent, Jetstar at 79.3 per cent and Tiger Airways at 72.5 per cent. Of the regional airlines, QantasLink was the best performer at 88.1 per cent, followed by Skywest (85 per cent) and Regional Express (81.9 per cent).

Virgin Blue and Tiger Airways reported the highest rate of cancellations at 2.2 per cent, while Skywest had the lowest number of cancellations at 0.1 per cent.

Overall, on time departures across all routes by all participating airlines averaged 83.2 per cent for on time departures, while cancellations represented 1.2 per cent of all scheduled flights. The equivalent figures for September 2008 were 79.6 per cent for departures and 1.6 per cent for cancellations.